Chelle's Blue and Sparkly Corner

published by Entangled Publishing, CovetReview: Alice Shepard is mortified to attend her sister’s wedding cruise without a “plus one.” She does not want to be a dateless loser in front of her ex-fiance, who also happens to be the brother of the groom. She has a plan though, if she can just get the courage to ask her neighbor to be her date. Noah Thorpe is the idealistic neighbor for most single women. From his dark hair to his chiseled features and dark blue eyes, he is a good-looking man. He wears expensive clothing that just hint at the perfect body underneath, but in the five years they have been neighbors, Alice has rarely seen him out of his home in the daytime. This is not your typical vampire novel. Ms. Allee has the hot scenes that I think most associate with a smoldering vampire, but she also has a bit of comic relief in her storyline. It reads easily and progresses well. I found myself laughing when Alice laughed, and I found myself worrying along with her. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a wonderful, light-hearted story, but also still wanting to read a good vampire story.Find Tiffany Allee onFacebookTwitterGoodreads

Blurb: Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister's wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he's never met. And Alice's offer comes at just the right time.

Matthew, my youngest son, forever my little boy, you are so greatly missed. I hope you know this. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I hope you know how very much I miss you. I don't want you to miss me too. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to know the sorrow that is associated with missing someone so much that it augments into a physical pain. I want you to be happy and carefree and running in fields of flowers, maybe even with a pack of puppies running with you. Do you remember the puppies we had right before you passed? Oh, you were so adorable with them. You wanted to pet them like you were allowed to pet the big doggy, but even as a toddler, you realized those puppies were precious. You would hold your tiny hand in the air just above the puppies and pretend like you were petting them, and you would look at me and smile, like…look momma, I understand. Goodness, you were just the cutest little boy ever! Today, my little sunshine, would be your birthday. I supposed I would not be able to call you my little boy anymore, would I? I cannot even begin to understand it. You would be 12 years old today, my youngest son….12. When the autumn comes around this year, it will be 10 years since I last held you, since I last hugged you, heard your voice, heard your laugh, heard you roar at me. What would you be like now, my Matthew? Would you be rambunctious like Anthony or reserved like Joshua? There are new people in my life; how I wish they could have met you too. You were such a special little boy, in so many ways. I know your life was difficult, sweetheart, in ways that even as your mom, I did not understand. But I miss you…I miss you, I miss you, I miss you. Most days I can grin and hide the loss away in a secret place and face the day, but sometimes, and usually at the most unexpected moments, the smallest thing happens, and the loss is brand new again, and it's gut wrenching, and I'm sitting here, thinking that surely this is how it feels to die, because there is no way a person can survive this pain. A pain so real that it makes my worst migraine seem like the tiniest pin prick that is over before it is felt. An emptiness that is somehow palpable, it is so profound that sometimes I can't find my way out of it, and momentarily, I feel myself succumb to the agony. I allow myself just a moment, the teeniest, tiniest moment, to wallow in the sorrow, in the hopelessness that the emptiness brings, and I cry, and I raise my head to the heavens, with the intention of crying out to God, and it's at that moment, always at that moment that I remember all is not lost. I hold on to that hope that one day, one day I will see you again, and I will drop to my knees in that field of flowers, and I will hold out my arms, and there you will be. You will run to me with your little Buzz Lightyear light-up shoes, and I will hug you again. But I still miss you. Not a single day has passed that I have not thought of you. So many things I had planned for you. So many dreams and wishes and goals. The doctors told me you would never be able to live on your own, that if you somehow managed to grow older, that you would be always dependent on me. It never crossed my mind for that to a burden. Your brothers, they will grow up and they will go out into this scary world and make their own way. And you, I thought I would always have you with me. It was a comfort, never a distress, and then even that was taken from me. And sometimes I still get frustrated. I get upset. It never lasts, of course, but I have my moments. I am allowed moments of weakness, and I dare anyone who has been through what I have to tell me otherwise. But, today, on your birthday, I just wanted you to know I am thinking of you. I remember you. I love you so very much, and I miss you even more. Happy Birthday, Matthew.

Brief excerptIt was only when the crickets and frogs stopped that Jess awoke. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the dark. She turned back over, expecting Allison to be either still sitting up, or asleep. But her bed was empty and Allison stood in front of the dresser, hands at her sides, staring at the mirror. Alarmed, Jess sat upright. “It’s happening again,” Allison said. “Huh?” “The spirits. They’re back. I can see them.” Jess rubbed her eyes as a spark of uncertainty and a moment’s worth of fear rustled somewhere deep inside her. “They’re there, in the mirror?” “Yes.” Jess got out of bed and tentatively stood next to Allison. She looked at the mirror, then behind her. Nothing. Uncertainty gave way to disappointment. The mirror cast back only the shadowy figures of Allison and herself, their faces made pale by the moonlight streaming into the room. They were alone, as far as Jess could tell. Damn it! Why couldn’t she see the ghosts? Were they here? Disappointment gave way to a pang of envy. “You don’t seem as upset as you were before,” Jess said. “If they’re back, aren’t you afraid they’ll take over? Possess you?” She wasn’t making fun of Allison. Something horrible had happened to her, and she was probably more sensitive to the supernatural than Jess was. “Yes, I’m afraid,” Allison replied calmly. The way Allison spoke seemed at odds with her words. The hairs on Jess’s arms tingled, but not because of any ghosts she couldn’t see. Right now, the only thing creepy in the room was Allison. The girl had been possessed, after all. Allison turned her head to look at Jess, her expression unreadable in the shadows, even this close up. “He collects souls.” Jess peered harder into the mirror, trying not to show Allison she was indeed afraid. “He? Who are you talking about?” “He’s looking at you. I can’t make out what he’s saying. But see?” she pointed to the mirror. “He wrote his name.” Fear and a healthy dose of agitation rose inside Jess. Fear, because someone staring at them from inside a mirror was downright scary. Agitated, because she couldn’t see anything, and Allison’s continual freak-outs were wearing on her. After a long day getting here, she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. “Allison, I don’t see anything! He? Who are you talking about?” “Riley,” Allison whispered. “Riley? Who’s Riley?” Allison stood just as still as she had upon Jess’s wakening. “He lives here. With the others.” “Others?” Jess stepped closer to the mirror, leaning against the dresser to get a better look. Her breath fogged it enough to reveal a single name, written backward: Riley.Synopsis: Be careful what you let in…

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.GoodreadsPurchase:AmazonBarnes & Noble

You know, I have always enjoyed the movie Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. It's one of those movies that I just have to watch whenever I catch it on T.V., which is not often enough. A couple of definitions for Serendipity that I found online are "when someone accidentally finds something good" or "the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it." Tomorrow is my fiance's birthday, and I wanted to take a moment to tell him happy birthday in the best way I know how…with words. To some of my readers, this will all make perfect sense. To some, it may sound at times like a foreign language. We met ingame, and we still actively participate, on Lord of the Rings Online. For the one it was intended, it will make perfect sense. I met my fiance at a complicated time in my life. I was still, in many ways, reeling from an ended marriage that had truthfully been ended for a long time. I just wasn't good at giving up, even when there had been nothing left to hold on to for many years. I made the decision, and was quite content with the idea, that I would raise my boys and my yorkie puppy, and I would worry about myself at a later time in life. Right now would be all about my boys and their happiness. So, then I met this person on this online game that I play. He had a soft voice, a kind voice, one that was very nice to hear, especially when you compare to the person I had been married to, who did nothing but yell all the time. There was never kindness there. There was never softness. There was never anything but hurt. I met this person, and we started spending time together online, in this game world. Then there was this one day when he's not online for whatever reason, and I realized I felt disappointment…that I had begun to look forward to talking to him, whether it be via typing ingame or via voice chat. I remember the exact moment I realized I was in trouble, that I had bypassed my intent to raise my boys on my own, that I was well on my way down the road to ut-oh! There were two particular instances that we were doing quite a bit at the time, North Cotton Farms and Stoneheight. So, we were running one of them with a "hunter" friend. Something happened, I don't remember what now, but Mr Awesome (known ingame as Leafblade) laughed. And it made me smile. It made my heart skip. I can remember sitting there, thinking, oh no! I was in no way looking for this. I didn't think I was in any way emotionally ready for this. I had spent a great deal of time deliberately building walls around my heart, sheltering myself from any possibility of being hurt again. It was like they were not even there, like I had not spent countless months trying to heal my damaged soul and my broken heart. I patched it together as best as I could, then I hid it away in a little box, with blue sharpie written on it…Do Not Open Until…Never! That was my intention. He just…before I even knew what was happening, there he was, inside the walls, opening that box….heck, I didn't even see him open the box. By the time I realized what was going on, he had taken my little heart and stuck it in his back pocket and was heading off to kill more orcs. It's really amazing the way you meet someone, and it feels like you've known them forever. Like, with that first hug, you get that sensation of coming home, that feeling that you belong. That is what happened to me. I have lived in one general area my entire life…1296 miles away from where he lives. I had never met him face to face, and when I did…it was like I had always known him. It didn't feel at all like I was meeting him for the first time. It was like meeting someone so special, someone that had always there, I just hadn't seen him yet. Then I turned around, and there he was, and it was like discovering a part of myself I didn't even know I was missing.

So I was in no way looking for someone, I was not remotely interested in being in love again, and yet it was one of the greatest moments in my life when I joined a Helegrod raid he posted…just a name at that time that I barely recognized. I remembered the *Leaf* part because of my fascination with autumn leaves and my love of all things *leaf* after grieving the loss of my son. A behavior very much unlike me, I took a chance and I asked him if I could join, and somewhere amongst killing drakes, I found my "something good." I found my very own serendipity.

Hope you have a magical birthday!

Now, on to some blog business…I will have the post for Michelle Muto's Haunting Season either late tomorrow night or first thing Wednesday morning, including a contest. Until then, Gwendolyn Michelle